‘A thrilling experience of turning video and sound into words’

“Barrier-free films allow the blind and the deaf to enjoy movies, and non-disabled people can also enjoy the films in a new way as if they are listening to a commentary,” said Director Min Gyu-dong who directed “All About My Wife” and “The Treacherous.”

Barrier-free films explain video and sound in a voice and display subtitles for dialogues so that people with visual and hearing impairment can watch films.

Min, Director Heo In-moo who directed “A Little Princess,” actress Oh Ha-nee and newscaster Lee Chang-hoon who is visually impaired held a talk show about barrier-free films at the office building of Hyundai Oilbank in Jung-gu, Seoul on Tuesday. Staff of Hyundai Oilbank and Hyundai Heavy Industries donated one percent of their salary through “Hyundai Heavy Industries Group One Percent Sharing Foundation,” which turned “A Little Princess” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth” into barrier-free films. The foundation plans to fund two to three barrier-free films every year and the video of the talk show will be distributed to all schools for the blind in Korea for free.

“It was a refreshing experience as I was able to recreate points that I missed while turning my movie into a barrier-free film,” said Heo. “I watched ‘Joint Security Area’ in a barrier-free film when I was in middle school,” said Lee. “It was amazing as I was able to vividly experience the movie without help of my family.”

The Korean Barrier Free Films Committee has been hosting the Seoul Barrier Free Film Festival every year since 2011. “I hope all films would be made barrier-free and more films would reach as many audiences as possible,” said Min.


Hyo-Lim Son aryssong@donga.com